


Winter Wonderland

by RedTeamShark



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Author Chose Not To Warn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-07 07:18:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16849582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: Ray likes winter. Michael and Gavin show him how to love winter.





	Winter Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> Proper warnings, tags, etc, may come in the future. For the time being I'm frantically transferring my content to a stable platform amidst growing concerns about tumblr's inevitable implosion.
> 
> Apologies for flooding the fandom page.

Ray likes the winter for all the wrong reasons.

Winter means he’s less likely to be invited out; it gets dark earlier in the day, it’s colder, people just seem less likely to want to hang out. The Christmas season changes that a little and he attends one or two of the annual parties just to not seem like an asshole, but ever since moving almost two thousand miles from home even Christmas has been easier. By the week of the actual holiday nearly everyone he knows has left town to visit family and he can just relax by himself.

It’s not that he’s a hermit or antisocial or anything. He just finds it much more relaxing to be at home than out on the town.

Until Michael and Gavin.

The other two men seem able to drag him outside like no one else ever has. When Michael texts him and asks if he wants to come hang out, he’ll almost always immediately agree. When Gavin invites him to dinner as they’re leaving work, he changes his plans without a second thought. When the two of them come knocking on his door at four in the morning the Sunday before Christmas with wide grins and hot coffees, he doesn’t even blink.

“Ray,” Michael begins, stepping into the younger man’s apartment and setting his coffee on the counter. “I have an amazingly stupid idea that we have to do, like, right now.”

“Are you drunk?” The Puerto Rican questions, leaning over slightly to smell his curly-haired friend’s coffee. It doesn’t  _smell_  like alcohol…

“It’s gonna snow in Amarillo.” That doesn’t answer his question; in fact, it opens up a whole new world of questions.

“Good for them?” He offers hesitantly, scratching at his bare chest and leaning over to shut the front door behind Gavin. “It’s four in the morning.”

Gavin takes a huge swallow of his coffee, running a hand through his hair and sending it into complete disarray. “Ray, Ray, you don’t understand. It’s gonna  _snow_  in  _Texas_.”

“Yeah, I got that, man. Amarillo’s in Texas, it’s gonna snow there. Guys I fell asleep like an hour ago—“

“You can sleep in the car.” Michael cuts him off, shooing him towards his bedroom. “Get dressed in warm clothes. We’ll stop at Walmart and buy gloves and hats and shit. Come on, go.”

Realization dawns on Ray then and he stares at the other two. They look back at him, expectantly and a little impatiently. Finally, Ray’s shoulders slump in defeat.

“We’re going to Amarillo, aren’t we?”

“You bet!”

With a sigh, Ray goes to get dressed.

–

It’s a seven and a half hour drive to the “magical snowing Texas land” (Gavin’s description, naturally) and Gavin insists on listening to Christmas music the entire way (“to get into the spirit of it” he informs the two men glaring at him). Thankfully for everyone’s sanity, he grows tired of it after barely an hour and instead puts Michael’s music library on.

Ray falls asleep around the two hour mark, after they’ve stopped at Walmart for winter clothes and have been on the highway for a while. It’s still dark, only the wash of headlights illuminating the inside of the car. He uses the pile of newly-purchased coats for pillow and blanket, curling up in the backseat of the car and drifting into a light sleep. He can hear Michael and Gavin talking in the front seat, their words fuzzy and incomprehensible.

When he wakes up the sun is fully risen and the world around him is decorated by a light frosting of white. He rubs his eyes, sitting up and frowning slightly, leaning forward to look at the clock. Ten in the morning. Well, at least he’s gotten some sleep.

“So, how close are we?” He questions Michael, gesturing to the lightly falling snow out the front window as if the other man can’t see it.

Michael shrugs, glancing down to check his GPS. “About an hour and a half, maybe two. We stopped for breakfast but you didn’t wake up, so,” he reaches down, handing a McDonalds bag to Ray, “hope you like Egg McMuffins.”

“Delicious.” Ray sits back, opening the bag and beginning to eat, glancing towards Gavin. Sound asleep, leaning on the window and snoring lightly. “You tired, Michael?”

“We’re gonna have to stay in Amarillo. I don’t trust either of you fucks with my car and I don’t think I’ll be able to drive back today.” He agrees, switching lanes to pass a minivan with a full luggage rack. “Christ, and I thought flying during the holidays was a pain.”

They chat about mostly inconsequential things, the snow around them growing heavier, seemingly with every mile north they go. Ray pulls out his phone, checking the weather forecast for the area. Apparently when the other two men had said that Amarillo was going to get snow, they’d meant there was going to be a fucking blizzard. This suddenly seemed like a very bad idea.

“How good are you at driving in snow, anyways?” Ray questions, watching the flakes falling from the sky. They’re starting to stick to the road, too, not just the grass in the median.

“Eh, y’know.” Michael waves a hand, smiling at him in the mirror. “I’ve seen other people do it.”

He doesn’t have a lot of room for argument here, of course. Ray swallows, leaning back and closing his eyes. “We’re going to die.”

–

Rather than face a horrible death at the hands of inclement weather, the trio arrives in Amarillo close to the estimated time on the GPS. Michael pulls into a parking lot as soon as they’re off the highway, beginning to search through the device.

“So, what are we looking for?” Ray questions, leaning over the seat back and alternatingly looking at the GPS in Michael’s hands and the blowing snow outside the car.

“Nearby park. Looks like there’s enough snow out there to actually, y’know, do stuff in.” Michael sets the device on the dash board after a minute, turning around and grinning. “C’mon, when’s the last time you had a snowball fight?”

Considering the answer, Ray only shrugs. “I mean, does Wii Fit count?”

“Piss off, Ray.” Gavin cuts in, giving him a light shove. “How have you never had a bloody snowball fight?”

“I lived in the city and didn’t go outside, that’s how.” They all laugh, however, before Michael backs out of the parking space and heads through the city to the park he’s found.

The park which is remarkably empty, a field of unblemished snow stretching from the road to the back end of a local school. The three in the car exchange grins, even Ray suddenly eager to ruin the perfectly even snowcover before him. Michael shuts the car off, all three of the lads scrambling to get into their recently-purchased winter gear.

Gloves, coats, hats, scarves all on, they pile out of the car and onto the snow, slipping in their sneakers and going to their denim-covered knees. Gavin scoops up two handfuls of snow, packing it together and flinging it towards Michael. The auburn-haired man cries out as it hits him in the chest, flailing, losing his balance, and landing on his back.

Gavin nearly doubles over laughing, the sound choking into an indignant cry as a snowball hits him in the side of the head. Ray snickers, trying to put on his most innocent face and brush the snow off his gloves when Gavin turns a glare on him.

The war is on.

No one is safe, there are no alliances. Michael ducks behind a tree, pelting snowballs at the other two as they scramble for cover. Gavin and Ray find themselves back to back, quietly strategizing how to take down the oldest of them. When Gavin agrees to make a charge so Ray can sneak around, the Puerto Rican instead pelts his back with snowballs, crying out victoriously.

They run and slide and slip and fall, old tracks being covered by fresh snow which is quickly disrupted. Their breath plumes around them in thick, steamy clouds, their cheeks and noses red from the cold. Finally, the three declare a truce, collapsing into the snow in the middle of the park, looking up at the sky and breathing heavily.

“I haven’t… done that since I was… like, fuckin’ ten…” Michael pants out, tilting his head and bumping it into Gavin’s slightly.

“Bloody hell…” The Brit manages, stretching his arms out to the sides, left arm flopping over Ray’s right. “Worth it.”

“Says the one who didn’t drive.” Michael gripes, shoving a pile of snow at him. “We should bury your ass.”

Ray snickers, shaking his head just a bit. “Not enough snow to bury him. I don’t think there’s enough here to bury  _me_.”

They hum in agreement, before Michael sits up with a grin. “Well, I mean, we could go somewhere that gets a lot of snow and try it there.”

“No!” The other two declare immediately, also sitting up. “One long-ass car trip per vacation.” Ray adds, making a small snowball and chucking it at Michael.

They stand, brushing the snow off their clothes, stumbling back to the car and climbing in. Ray glances back as he climbs into the back seat, smiling a little. It’s still snowing and he wonders if it’ll be enough to cover over their tracks by the end of the day.

He kind of hopes not.


End file.
